Free Republic

On Wednesday night the Georgia legislature introduced new language to its religious freedom bill and passed the bill in mere hours. Haste makes waste. This new language significantly waters down a religious freedom bill that had real force even though it was, as we pointed out three weeks ago, already lacking in certain respects.

On the summit of Stone Mountain, yards away from where Ku Klux Klansmen once burned giant crosses, just above and beyond the behemoth carving of three Confederate heroes, state authorities have agreed to erect a monument to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Specifically, an elevated tower — featuring a replica of the Liberty Bell — would celebrate the single line in the civil rights martyr’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech that makes reference to the 825-foot-tall hunk of granite: “Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.” (snip) Gov. Nathan Deal has green-lighted the projects, and a formal...

Republicans David Perdue and Gov. Nathan Deal each won more than 40 percent of the Hispanic vote on their way to victory Tuesday despite staking out get-tough positions on illegal immigration, a new report shows. The Pew Research Center report shows Perdue defeated Democrat Michelle Nunn for his Senate seat with 42 percent of the Hispanic vote and 53 percent of the overall vote. Deal turned back a challenge from Democrat Jason Carter with 47 percent of the Hispanic vote and 53 percent of the overall vote. *** In exit poll surveys, Latino voters ranked the economy as the most...

More GOP cavalry arrived in Georgia today as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz stumped with David Perdue and Gov. Nathan Deal in Canton, invoking memories of long gas lines and stagflation as he attacked their Democratic rivals. “Here in Georgia, we’ve got on the ballot Jimmy Carter and Sam Nunn,” he said. “It’s like ‘That 70’s Show.'” The Texas firebrand echoed Perdue’s talking points by saying that an election of Michelle Nunn, the Democratic nominee, equals a stamp of approval for President Barack Obama’s agenda. Republicans need a net gain of six Senate seats to take control of the chamber, and...

Around 2 p.m. Tuesday, a makeshift boat carrying nine Cuban rafters landed in front of Key Biscayne’s multi-story oceanfront Mar Azul condominium. As the rafters – all men in their 20s, 30s and 40s - scrambled ashore, Mar Azul residents came out to take a peek, said Police Chief Charles Press. One condo resident shot video of the rafters as they walked away from the boat, which had inner tubes on the sides and what appeared to be an engine in the back. The words Brayan and Yoanni were painted on the back. Several were wearing soaked T-shirts, shirts and...

You could almost hear the groans from Democrat Jason Carter’s camp last week when his grandfather, former President Jimmy Carter, co-authored an op-ed arguing that Hamas should be recognized as a legitimate political actor. Gov. Nathan Deal has since tried to tie his November opponent to his grandpa’s views of Hamas, the militant faction which the U.S. considers a terrorist group. Others, including some Democratic supporters, have questioned why Carter didn’t come out strongly against his grandfather’s position. Carter’s strategists don’t want the campaign to answer for his grandfather every time he says something controversial. They also recognize Deal and...

Incumbent Republican Nathan Deal trails Democratic challenger Jason Carter by seven points in Rasmussen Reports’ first look at the Georgia gubernatorial race. A new statewide telephone survey of Likely Georgia Voters finds Carter with 48% support to Deal’s 41%. Three percent (3%) like another candidate in the race, while seven percent (7%) are undecided.

Have we gone stark raving mad? The question is brought to mind by the gun law signed last week in Georgia by Gov. Nathan Deal. You might have thought that since the United States couldn’t possibly have more permissive firearms laws than it does now, nothing more could be done to coddle the gun lobby and tip the balance of our statutes away from law enforcement. Alas, you would be wrong. -snip- Oh yes, and while conservatives claim to hate the centralization of power, this law wipes out a series of local gun regulations. The gun supremacists just don’t trust...

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal is expected to sign legislation Wednesday expanding gun rights in the state. The bill, described by the National Rifle Association’s lobbying arm as "the most comprehensive pro-gun reform legislation introduced in recent state history," expands the scope of public places where licensed owners are allowed to carry firearms. The bill makes several changes to state law. It allows those with a license to carry to bring a gun into a bar without restriction and into some government buildings that don't have certain security measures. It also allows religious leaders to decide whether it's OK for a...

ATLANTA — Pro- and anti-gun forces do not agree on much, but they do agree on the breathtaking sweep of the Georgia legislation allowing guns in bars, schools, restaurants, churches and airports that is now awaiting the signature of Gov. Nathan Deal.

Dear parents, teachers, preachers and voters – we need your help to stop the GOP led Common Core (CC) march into Georgia! Friends, we must STOP this CC bill in the Georgia House. House education hearings will begin next week after the GOP led Senate passes SB 167 this week. As Georgia Senator William Ligon admits, his bill DOES NOT give Georgia anything resembling a CLEAN BREAK from the Common Core standards but, it instead gives all local school districts the authority to choose to continue using CC math and/or English and Language Arts (ELA) standards or return to using...

In a briefing late Tuesday night, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal deflected criticism for the traffic nightmare plaguing Metro Atlanta saying in part that the crippling weather was "unexpected" and that government officials made preparations based on forecasts that called for "the majority of the effects of the storm" to be "south of here." "We have been confronted with an unexpected winter storm that has hit the metropolitan Atlanta area," the governor said.  But a timeline of winter storm watches, warnings, and advisories paints a different picture, one that shows that the governor and other government officials had nearly a day to prepare...

The Atlanta schools cheating case is now in the hands of three local district attorneys, who must decide whether the scandal is also criminal. District attorneys in Fulton, DeKalb and Douglas counties said they are reviewing the voluminous report by state investigators and will decide whether to seek indictments. Douglas County DA David McDade said Friday he expects it will take prosecutors a considerable amount of time to reach decisions. He noted that the GBI’s investigative file in the case amasses 120 volumes. As prosecutors consider their options, scores of current and former APS educators and administrators, some at the...

Across Atlanta Public Schools, staff worked feverishly in secret to transform testing failures into successes.Teachers and principals erased and corrected mistakes on students’ answer sheets.Area superintendents silenced whistle-blowers and rewarded subordinates who met academic goals by any means possible.Superintendent Beverly Hall and her top aides ignored, buried, destroyed or altered complaints about misconduct, claimed ignorance of wrongdoing and accused naysayers of failing to believe in poor children’s ability to learn.For years — as long as a decade — this was how the Atlanta school district produced gains on state curriculum tests. The scores soared so dramatically they brought national acclaim...

Fox 5/WAGA-TV’s Justin Gray was blocked by state troopers from a public immigration bill signing held today by Gov. Nathan Deal at the Gold Dome. Why? Deal’s press office was angry about an unrelated, unflattering story Dale Russell had done the night before about Deal. Below is the story that upset Deal’s office. The campaign had paid $90,000 to a fund-raising company the I-Team had never heard of called Southern Magnolia Capital. Russell discovered that company was connected to Deal’s daughter in law Denise Deal. Phil Wilheit, identified in the story as Deal’s campaign manager, told Russell the transaction was...

Gov. Nathan Deal told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday that the immigration bill adopted by the General Assembly appears to meet his criteria for necessary and needed changes. Deal said he will review the legislation, House Bill 87, to be sure, "but at least the broad parameters of what we know are there appear to be consistent with what we would be agreeable to." The General Assembly approved the sweeping, Arizona-style bill Thursday in the final hours of the 2011 legislative session. Deal said he has been consistent since his campaign last year that he would support a "balanced immigration...

While we are all praying for repeal (ultimately) let's hope between the House defunding, the courts ruling unconstitutional and the Governors fighting that they can slow this thing to a crawl until we take back DC in 2012.

In the last 24 hours, former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich has touched base with several prominent Republicans in his former home state, telling them that he intends to make a run for president in 2012 using Georgia as his base – and that he already has his eye on office space in Buckhead for a campaign headquarters. Former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich Gingrich met on Thursday with Nathan Deal, whom Gingrich endorsed during a critical phase of last year’s Republican primary for governor. House Speaker David Ralston introduced Gingrich Thursday night at a downtown Atlanta affair hosted by...

The campaign of Nathan Deal says the Republican nominee for governor shed “birther” attorney Orly Taitz as a Facebook friend this morning, within minutes of finding out who she was. Taitz is the infamous attorney – the term is used loosely — who has persuaded a handful of military personnel, including officers, to resist overseas deployment on the fiction that Obama is a non-citizen and thus ineligible to be president and commander-in-chief. She’s currently fighting a $20,000 fine imposed last year by a federal judge in Columbus. On Wednesday, Taitz posted the following on her web site: If you recall,...

Just in from Karen Handel: I want to thank all of my friends, supporters, volunteers and my campaign team for a tremendous effort over the last 16 months. We ran a terrific campaign, beat the odds to come in first place in the Primary, and came so very close in the runoff election. As of this morning, we are four tenths of a percentage point behind Nathan Deal with absentee ballots and overseas military votes yet to be counted. We certainly have the option of requesting the automatic statewide recount. But we are not going to do that. The best...